Gül Ünal Çoban

Elementary school students’ water awareness

Environmental problems grow gradually and their effects are felt in various ways such as shortage of potable water. Among the various solutions offered to solve these problems, there is one standing which has the potential of encapsulating all the solutions in, that is “water education”. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present the results of a project conducted through a Water School Workshop Study related to students. The 30 students from 6th, 7th and 8th grade levels who were given water education for 25 lecture hours in totally 5 days by using originally developed instructional materials participated in the study. The data were gathered through qualitative and quantitative instruments before and just after the Water School. The results showed that the Water School is generally effective on the students’ conception about water, attitudes toward water usage, awareness of environment and general opinions related to the water. Moreover, the students’ answers for quantitative data collection tools were determined to be significantly permanent compared with the answers to the qualitative data collection tools even 3 months after the Water School.

From the Physiocrats to Fairness in Nations

In this review, work from three centuries of biophysical economics is presented, starting from the physiocrats’ early work in biophysical economics in 1755, to the most recent modeling of modern societies with approaches from biophysics and physics, to explain the wealth distribution, opinions and power structures in societies and nations. At the same time, we are also dealing with generalizations, in particular, how to define and create fairness in nations. The general conclusions emphasize the strength of socio-econo-physics in explaining nations, also in comparison to the other approaches, due to the unbiased starting points and diversity in methods. The results emphasize that fairness is increased with citizens’ activities that create smoother income distributions and improving the flow of opportunities in the nation. Fairness also fights unjust socio-economic biases and suggests advancing citizens-managed organizations.

Commentary on “Biophysical Economics” and Evolving Areas

In this Issue, papers in the area of socio-econo-physics and biophysical economics are presented. We have recently introduced socio-econo-physics and biophysical economics in Biophysical Reviews and Letters (BRL), yet saw 3 to 4 relevant papers just in these most recent three quarters. In this commentary, we therefore would like to elaborate on the topics of socio-econo-physics and biophysical economics and to introduce these concepts to the readers of BRL and the biophysical community of science, with the purpose of supporting many more publications here in BRL, in this evolving area.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Physics of Societies

How can we solve problems in the society that cause socio economic crises such as the one of 2008? Here we introduce the subject of this special issue, ‘physics of societies’, dealing with a general introduction to the subject, and the particular special issue projects’ presentation, explaining why this subject is important to the scientific community and to the society, what are the problems that we can deal better using these approaches, and what can be suggested to do next in practice. We emphasize the strength of physics of socio-economic systems to treat problems in nations that are not solved with other approaches, and that these results can indeed affect the people, in particular with intervention schemes that support creating managed organizations, including support from socio-economic-organizations, for instance.

Fen Bilimleri Öğretmenleri için “Teknolojik Pedagojik Alan Bilgisi Temelli Argümantasyon Uygulamaları” Eğitiminin Değerlendirilmesi

In science education, creating learning environments supported with technology and students’ use of theory-evidence coordination when expressing their ideas is emphasized regarding the development of students’ scientific reasoning, critical thinking, decision making skills, and etc. In this process, great responsibilities are fallen to teachers as planner and designer of a learning environment. In this study, it is aimed to assess the training which aims the development of science teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through argumentation practices. In this context; this study evaluated the science teachers’ argumentation skills, self-efficacy perceptions towards TPACK and the teachers’ views about the training. 37 science teachers working at different cities in Turkey participated in the one group pre-test post-test experimental training study, which was lasted 54 hours during a week. The training is composed of both hand and minds on argumentation practices based on TPACK. The participants joined different activities such as collaborative group works, drama, modeling, thematic games, art activities, problem-based learning, field trips, observation and workshops. In the study, Argumentation Test, TPACK Self-Efficacy Belief Scale were used as data collection tools. At the end of the training written views of science teachers towards activities were taken. In the light of the findings, this training was effective on the participants’ self-efficacy levels towards technological pedagogical content knowledge. Moreover, this training resulted in a positive change in the participants’ views about how a statement could be accepted as an argument. However, the increase in scores of argumentation skills was not significant. Additionally almost all of the participants stated that they found the activities useful and can use in their classes. By considering these results, some suggestions were given.

A Simple Way of Modeling the Expansion of the Universe: What Does Light Tell Us?

ABSTRACT The purpose of this activity is to model the expansion of the universe by investigating the behavior of water waves. It is designed for students in the upper grades of physics and physical science who are learning about the wave nature of light and are ready to discover such important questions about science. The article explains first the Doppler effect through water waves and then extends to how to interpret light waves coming from other galaxies. Therefore, in addition to raising the scientific curiosity of the students, this activity also gives them an understanding of the hypothesis–evidence relation and the interpretation of data.ABSTRACT The purpose of this activity is to model the expansion of the universe by investigating the behavior of water waves. It is designed for students in the upper grades of physics and physical science who are learning about the wave nature of light and are ready to discover such important questions about science. The article explains first the Doppler effect through water waves and then extends to how to interpret light waves coming from other galaxies. Therefore, in addition to raising the scientific curiosity of the students, this activity also gives them an understanding of the hypothesis–evidence relation and the interpretation of data.

İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin Bilimsel Bilginin Varlık Alanına Yönelik Görüşlerini Belirleme Ölçeği

Ilkogretim Ogrencilerinin Bilimsel Bilginin Varlik Alanina Yonelik Goruslerini Belirleme Olcegi